Emergency: Seminar and Film Shows

Citizens Initiative for Peace (CIP)
invites you to a National Seminar on

EMERGENCY… THEN AND NOW
The Status of Democracy in India today

On 20 August 2005 at SCM House, Bangalore

Democracy in India is alive and kicking. So goes the popular saying in media, in national and international forums. Emergency has largely been understood as a watershed in the history of democracy in India. We take pride in the fact that those black days can never be back, that those loopholes have been plugged by bringing suitable amendment to the Constitution, that emergency is the thing of the past, and that it can never return to plague the Indian Constitution.

However, every toiling citizen knows that all is not well. What has gone wrong and where? Our Constitution, of course, has lofty ideals as declared in the Directive Principles. But the operative portions as reflected in the Acts and Schedules have become a constraint for a full realization of the spirit of Constitution, which are repeatedly amended for the worst. Of late particularly after the 90s, the Constitutional spirit seems to have suffered a set back. The Right to Life, Freedom of Expression, Right against Exploitation… and many such core ideals of our independent struggle are getting subverted.

Is it truly a matter of bad governance or denial of democratic rights? Why is that laws that are more draconian than MISA have come to be passed ruthlessly used and abused? Why is it that the Indian Army has killed more number of our own countrymen than others – that too in the name of democracy and national interest? One of the greatest paradoxes of our times is that more kinds of oppressive regimes, denial of rights and access to resources, brutal suppression of people’s voices and the very mortgaging of the autonomy and freedom of a nation are carried out in the very name of Democracy.

In such a scenario how do we understand Indian democracy? In what direction is it moving? What is to be done?


Film screenings on the Emergency on 17 and 18 August 2005 at SCM House. Full programme schedule attached below.

Venue details: SCM House, 29, 2 Cross CSI Compound (Near Bangalore City Corporation, Mission Road, Bangalore – 560 027


PROGRAMME: 20 AUGUST 2005

10:00 am
Welcome Note
Gauri Lankesh,
Convener (CIP)

10:15 am
Inauguration
Ko. Chennabasappa, Retd. Justice, Karnataka High Court

10:30 am
Introductory remarks
Prof. V. S. Sreedhara,Convener (CIP)

11:00 am
Key Note: The Nature of Emergency Today
Nandita Haksar, Advocate, Supreme Court

11:45 am
Discussion
Fr. Ambrose Pinto, Prof. Sitaram Kakrala, Dr. Siddanagowda Patil

12:45 pm
Lunch

1:30 pm
Post Emergency Anti-Democratic Laws
Sheela Ramanathan, Advocate, Bangalore

2:00 pm
Discussion
ALF, SICHREM, PUCL

2:30 pm
Dalit Question and Indian Democracy
Anand Teltumbe, Dalit Intellectual, Mumbai

3:00 pm
Discussion
Laxman, DSS

3:15 pm
Tribal Question: The present status
Vittal Hegde, Shringeri
Deba Ranjan Sarangi, PSSP, Kashipur

4:15 pm
Discussion
Prof. Manu Chakravarthy,
Dr. Vishnu Kamat,
Pradeep

4:45 pm
Summing Up
Prof. N. Ramesh, Principal, National College

FILM SCREENING SCHEDULE : 17, 18 AUGUST 2005

17 – Aug – 05, 5:00 pm
Prisoners of Consciousness
Directed by Anand Patwardhan

17 – Aug – 05, 6:00 pm
Lest we Forget: Memories of the Emergency
Directed by Alternate Visions

18 – Aug – 05, 5:00 pm
Delhi Dairy
Directed by Ranjani Mazumdar

18 – Aug – 05, 6:00 pm
Remains of Yesterday
Directed by Sanjay Dominic

This is an open event, all are invited.